Free for a Fee

50 years ago, did anyone but big rightsholders and lawmakers care about copyright? It certainly wasn’t the tremendous public issue it has become today, and a new short film from Canadian law professor Michael Geist takes a look at why copyright matters to people and what they think copyright should cover.

Geist’s film has a particularly Canadian flavor, but most of the arguments made are applicable in the US and around the world. In it, a collection of artists, thinkers, musicians, and lawyers—even the Privacy Commissioner of Canada—weigh in on copyright, anticircumvention law, and the public domain.